Yellow Arrow Publishing recently hired several new readers for our chapbook submissions (round 1 reading is currently taking place!) and would like to introduce each of them in a blog series over the weekend: Anna Leonard, Jillian Tremblay, and Natalie Wollenzien. Spring publications intern, Mel Silberger, also decided to stay on staff and has joined our new readers during our first-round selections; we’ll reintroduce Mel later in the year.
We are excited to have fresh eyes on this year’s chapbook submissions and to hear what they have to say about the beautiful voices shared with us. Thank you Anna, Jillian, Natalie, and Mel, for taking the time to join us this summer.
Finally (for now!), we would like to present Natalie Wollenzien. Natalie is a fiction, nonfiction, and poetry writer. Located in Louisville, Kentucky, she works at Sarabande Books as the marketing coordinator and writes freelance reviews for Foreword Reviews. As of late, her writing has been shifting towards the kooky, the strange, the reality tilted slightly to the left. Her cats remain ambivalent but supportive. She has work out in San Antonio Review and Anti-Heroin Chic and is building toward a full-length short story collection.
Natalie states, “I am so incredibly excited to start reading for Yellow Arrow! It’s such an honor and privilege to be included in a group of fellow passionate creatives. I look forward not only to finding those incredible works but also to be in conversation and collaboration with the lovely editorial team in finding which work to publish.”
Tell us a little something about yourself:
Past publications include “Healing My (Feral) Inner Child,” a poem in Anti-Heroin Chic, and “A Tacit Prayer,” a poem in San Antonio Review. I had the honor and privilege of attending my very first residency earlier this year through the Kentucky Foundation for Women in Loretto, Kentucky, and it was great! I’m on year three of being rejected from the Lambda Literary Retreat, but I’m biding my time.
What do you love most about Louisville, Kentucky?
The thing I love most about Louisville (where I live) is that it is so genuinely weird. Everyone that lives here, in my humble opinion, has a uniqueness to them, for better or worse. They all have something that’s solely theirs, and I find that most Louisville folks are unapologetically themselves. The food is pretty great, too.
How did you get involved with Yellow Arrow and what do you do for us? Why did you want to join the Yellow Arrow team?
I was so delighted to see that Yellow Arrow was offering reader positions through CLMP’s job and volunteer postings! I loved Yellow Arrow’s mission to uplift marginalized voices, particularly women voices, and that they strive to be a welcoming and open space for writers of all backgrounds: “yes, we belong here, too.”
What are you working on currently?
Right now, I am trying to get back into more consistent mindfulness: journaling, meditation, meditative movements, and so on. I find for myself, at least, that it’s incredibly important to take time for myself that doesn’t involve a screen. I’m also trying to cobble together some short story ideas and actually put them to paper!
What genre do you write or read the most and why?
I cycle through different genres pretty often! Lately I’ve been very, very into speculative fiction, but I can feel myself starting to edge closer towards the essay. It’s hard to say why I go through cycles of writing genres like this.
What book is on the top of your to-be-read pile?
I found out about this book this morning [in May] actually! It’s Bright and Tender Dark, a thriller novel by Joanna Pearson. I’m not typically a murder mystery kind of person, but I will read anything that Joanna Pearson writes, as with her writing there’s always something darker and frighteningly human lurking beneath the surface.
Who is your favorite writer and why?
Oh, this one is so tough! I think my most recent favorite author is Mona Awad. Just this year I’ve gotten to read Bunny, All’s Well, and Rouge! She is such a fearless writer, so unafraid for her characters to think the darkened thoughts, to behave in ways strange and uncouth, to make the wrong decisions (almost) to the very end. Her ability to be a master in worldbuilding in her word usage is a masterclass in and of itself, as well.
Who has inspired and/or supported you most in your writing journey?
Honestly, no singular person comes to mind so much as a myriad of stepping stones in the form of supportive loved ones, teachers, professors, TAs, and coworkers throughout my life. I’ve found that sharing your writing can be such a vulnerable thing, and it’s the folks that responded with such compassion and care that I owe so much to.
What do you love most about writing?
It feels transformative, in a way. Even when I’m writing something from my own perspective, it feels as though I enter a different universe when I get in a proper flow state, like everything else falls away and it’s just me and the world that I’m creating. It can bring about huge amounts of catharsis and joy as well as despair and frustration, a very life-full kind of experience.
What advice do you have for new writers?
Rejection is okay! Being rejected is not at all a reflection of your talent as a writer. The most talented people you or I know have been rejected by many, many literary magazines and agents and publishers. I’ve found that what helps me the most is to submit my work en masse. Oddly enough, it feels like less of a blow rather than waiting with bated breath for one response to one story or poem I send in.
What’s the most important thing you always keep near wherever you work?
I have a small collection of stress balls, each with a different “squish” factor, if you will. The more stress I need to exert, the tougher the stress ball needs to be. Also, water! Anytime I can feel myself getting in a more negative frame of mind, I am not joking when about half of the time it’s because I’m dehydrated.
What’s your vision for Yellow Arrow in 2024?
When I think of the term “amplify,” I think of a megaphone, amplifying a voice. There’s a loudness to it, a call to attention. In the case of women’s voices, we have been historically silenced, sometimes through legislation, sometimes through barring us from important rooms and conversations, and often through cultural conditioning. We’re told that we are too loud, too aggressive, “too much” generally speaking. I hope to find the works that bite back, the unapologetically themselves, the works that say that “I am not too much, you are simply thinking too small.”
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women-identifying writers through publication and access to the literary arts. You can support us as we AMPLIFY women-identifying creatives this year by purchasing one of our publications or a workshop from the Yellow Arrow bookstore, for yourself or as a gift, joining our newsletter, following us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, or subscribing to our YouTube channel. Donations are appreciated via PayPal (staff@yellowarrowpublishing.com), Venmo (@yellowarrowpublishing), or US mail (PO Box 65185, Baltimore, Maryland 21209). More than anything, messages of support through any one of our channels are greatly appreciated.